“About what?”
“Your life, your dad…everything. You just gonna keep being who he wants you to be? If I did that, I’d be in prison for armed robbery with my pops.” I rested against the wall beside him.
“Shit…you really are a bad boy. So the rumors about illegal stuff are true?”
“Most aren’t, but some are.” We were quiet for a moment, our arms touching, nothing but our long-sleeved shirts between us. “No one can force you to be anyone you don’t want to be, Lacrosse. I refuse to fucking believe that shit. People might look at me and think I’m nothing, but they don’t control who I am.”
“It’s not that easy.”
“So? What does easy have to do with anything?”
“I think we’re having a moment here.”
“Until you opened your mouth and ruined it.”
We chuckled, and he said softly, “No one knows any of that…not just the nurse stuff.”
“Who am I gonna tell?”
“The twink from the other night?”
“So fucking jealous. Get off my dick,” I replied, secretly liking it. I’d always liked Ty wanting me.
“You love it when I’m on your cock. Don’t pretend you don’t.”
Eh, he had a point. “I still don’t like you.”
“I still don’t like you either.”
But he wasn’t a total asshole. “Let’s go.”
I pushed off the wall, and Ty did too. “Where are we going?”
“I’m gonna help your dumb ass study. It’s not your dad it’s gonna hurt if you flunk out of school.”
“I wouldn’t let that happen. Then I couldn’t play lacrosse.”
“Shit, I was hoping you didn’t really like that game either.”
“I do, and you’re coming to one of my games, Sunshine. I don’t care what I have to do to make it happen.”
“Nah, I’m good.”
“Just you wait and see.”
Jesus, he better not be right.
CHAPTER TEN
Ty
We’d been studying for an hour, and I still couldn’t believe it was happening. That I was at Braxton’s house, in his room, with him at his desk while I lay on his bed, with books and computers and… “Want me to suck you off?”
“No,” he replied.
Fuck, he had willpower for days. “Do you want to suck me off?”
He groaned. “We’re studying.”
“Braxton.”
“Lacrosse.”
“I can’t believe you’re interested in this stuff. It’s so boring.” I’d pretended to care most of my life, bonding with Dad over things I had no interest in. I liked that I didn’t have to with Brax.
“No, it’s not. I like that it makes sense in a way people don’t. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not fond of humans. Computers, I like.”
“Wait…you don’t like people? I never would have guessed.”
“Fuck off, pretty boy.”
“Aw, you think I’m pretty!”
“I gotta get this shit done before work.” Brax didn’t look at me when he spoke, instead facing his laptop screen. I could tell he was serious. Before our conversation earlier today, I probably would have continued to tease him, but I could feel how important this was to him. I’d gone to school because that’s what Langleys did. It was never a question that I would go to college or that I’d have the money to do it.
Brax had to work for it. He wasn’t expected to get a degree; he’d chosen to, and that was really fucking cool.
Not that I planned to tell him. Despite what happened earlier, we didn’t work that way.
While I wouldn’t say we were friends, we had a new understanding of each other.
I really didn’t feel like doing schoolwork, but Brax had been cool enough to help me understand what the fuck I was doing, so I kept my phone silenced, knowing Watty, Ford, and Collins were blowing me up, and said, “Let’s do this.”
He looked at me, frowned, and then we got to work.
“Where the fuck were you today?” Collins asked after practice.
“Around.” I couldn’t say why I didn’t want them to know I was with Brax. For some reason, I wanted to keep it to myself. They’d talk shit, which I understood because it was weird that I’d spent time with someone they called Asshole Bartender. But we had, and I’d enjoyed it. Besides, I didn’t always know where they were either.
“Around? What do you mean around?” Watty asked.
“I mean I was doing shit. What does it matter?”
“Oh damn. Who are you fucking?”
I could see why their thoughts went here. Normally it would be about sex. It definitely wouldn’t be about homework. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” I teased, and they went with it, patting me on the back, Ford pushing me into Watty, who shoved me into Collins. All fist-bumps and bro hugs.
“Stop.” I laughed. “I need to get ready for work.”
“I can’t believe you got a job. It’s like you’re growing up right before our eyes.” Watty wiped fake tears from his face.
“You’re an idiot.”
“You act like that’s something new. I’ve always been an idiot.”
We snickered because none of us could argue that truth.
Once we were back at the house, I got ready, made a sandwich, then headed to Shenanigans.